December 2: Egg Cracker
Ate a hearty brunch before heading back to school to finish off the last days of classes with my mom and sister. Amazing food there as always. Then it was time to get cracking (see what I did there) into my studies and finishing off a group project.
December 8: Pasadena Media Holiday Party
It was my last day interning and boy the feels were all coming. Bittersweet moment. BUT I'm coming back next semester, Spring 2018 as a marketing/community outreach intern. I'm very excited and ready to continue learning at this wonderful, magical media production company.
For my last day, I helped out with party preparations, including decorations and such. I remember walking into the internship site with this a nervous feeling for the party because I didn't want to do something stupid or say something stupid at a party. Once I walked into the snowflakes hanging down the ceiling and see everyone decorating the studio, it was just heartwarming and beautiful. All the jitters were forgotten and I was solely focused on helping out with decorating the studio. The party was great and a success, with laughs, fun, and happiness. I can't wait to be back next year. Real soon!
December 9: The Peach Cafe
Before the storm of finals hit, my sister took me out to the Peach Cafe to eat brunch before taking me back to college. The eggs benedict was amazing!!Loved! Definitely fueled me up to be ready for those finals the following week. However, the minute I got back to college, there was a power outage. The second one that week... Just goes to show, CSUF isn't ready for finals like the rest of us. Too soon. Once the power outage was over, then the Wi-Fi was down in the housing area. Great... Luckily, my friend Gabi was so nice and giving and let me crash at her place for a bit at night to practice some accounting problems online. So so grateful.
December 16: Somi Somi+LASAGNA +Ritter's Steam Kettle Cooking+Cookies & Cream
Ice cream for breakfast anyone? No? Okay, well more for me! My sister and I got ice cream for breakfast on our way to getting supplies to make lasagna for our parents for the Christmas party they were going to. The ice cream on a fish-like cone was good. Not too sweet, but it is a messy dessert. You really have to be careful to eat the ice cream first, then eat the ice cream with the fish cone very carefully.
Off to getting supplies for lasagna! Then we got back home, ate some leftovers, and went to prepping the lasagna. I helped my sister mix the ingredients and helped cook the beef! I thought it was so cool how when the beef hit the pan, it stuck to it like glue. My sister said to not worry, it won't stick to the pan. I kept stirring and stirring, and what do you know? Unstuck! So magical. I know, you can totally tell I do not cook. Haha. It was fascinating to me. Just wow.
After making the lasagna, my sister and I headed out to get dinner at Ritter's Steam Kettle Cooking. We got the calamari and the pan roast with chicken and sausage. Boy was the food spicy. I'm never a fan of spicy, but I have to say, it was really good. The spiciness doesn't last too long either like other spicy foods. It was quite interesting, in a good way. Usually spiciness sticks to you, making your lips and tongue on fire. The food here didn't give quite that type of effect. By the time we left to the car, the spiciness was gone already. Amazing.
We decided to get some dessert at Cookies & Cream. We got two flavors, Smurf Tears and Lychee Passion. They were so good! Even on a cold night. Great little place.
On the way to Ritter's Steam Kettle Cooking, we also stumbled upon a police incident too. Scary. We tried to get out of that scene as fast as possible. On the bright side, we did get to see pretty lights and decorations for Christmas. Those were really nice.
December 20-21: homemade food
Home for the winter break means homemade food. Fresh also! My mom made her version of shabu shabu and it was so good! Love fish balls and turnip and mushrooms! Mmm mmm good!
December 23: Disney On Ice+Green Tomato Grill+Meet Fresh+Krispy Kreme+Homemade Shabu Shabu
My family's tradition trip to Disney On Ice happened on December 23rd this winter break. The message this year was follow your heart. I think I definitely am following that message to heart already. (: Disney and I are simpatico on this idea.
Then we headed to Green Tomato Grill for lunch. I got the Teriyaki Bowl. It was okay, a little spicy and too much sauce. Next time, I would put the sauce on the side.
After lunch comes dessert! My family headed to Meet Fresh and got the Meet Signature and the almond sweet soup No. 3. Great herbal desserts! Then we got a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. We haven't gotten donuts from Krispy Kreme in so long, so we decided why not. Back to the good old days. Seeing the process of the company making the donuts brought back some memories.
Headed back home and had more homemade shabu shabu of my mom's. So good!
December 24: Hanashima
My parents and I got lunch at Hanashima. It's not the same anymore. I think they changed the soup base because the ramen was spicy a bit again. The teriyaki bowl (not featured) was still good as always.
December 25: Pho
Lunch eating Pho! A great little lunch on Christmas day. I hope everyone had a wonderful one with family and friends!
December 26: Buil Sam Gye Tang+Cafe Bora+Curious Goldie+Square Mixx
My sister was off Tuesday so she took my mom and I out to get chicken rice soup at Buil Sam Gye Tang. It was pretty good, but it is really hot. When you eat it, you must be very careful. Cafe Bora was amazing as usual. We got the the Sweet Potato Soft Serve and the Sweet Potato Bingsoo. Both great but I think my favorite is the Bingsoo. We also went to Curious Goldie, which was in the building next to Cafe Bora, called Square Mixx. We got red bean and custard flavored fishes from Curious Goldie and they were good. Crunchy, crispy, and delicious. I would come back to buy them.
December 27: Homemade Sweet Soup
My mom made some homemade sweet soup that she learned from a YouTube video, and it was pretty good. I liked the chewiness of the little yam balls she made. Really delicious!
December 28: Star Wars: The Last Jedi+Side Chick+Homemade Chewy Sweets
My dad and I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It was so, so good! I loved it. I teared up several times during the movie. The new characters, ports, were so cute! BB-8 is still as cute as ever. That day, I went home and did some research on the previous episodes of the series. Love the Star Wars Saga so much!
We got lunch at Side Chick and then we did some Disney window shopping for a while. I even saw some old friends at the mall, Zhou, Rachel, and Jennifer. It has been a long time since I seen them. Crazy how time past so fast.
My mom more homemade sweets; this time, she made some yam balls and they were great!
December 29-30: Float decoration+The Fresh Shave+Bakers & Baristas
The month of December calls for... float decoration! Ahh! I had the privilege to do float decorating yet again with my great friend, Sandy this year. It was fun and I just love doing things that are bigger than myself. For the first day, we worked with Nigella seeds. We put the seeds onto the wheel, one of the wheels of the Amazon Prime float. We also worked with Amazon Kiro flowers by taking off the leaves and pass them to the next person to cut it and stick them into the vials with water. I think it was for the UPS float that had a dragon on it. It might be for the fish float, by Singpoli I believe. I saw someone I remember for a previous float decoration and we talked a bit. It was amazing to see a familiar face in the crowd of float decoration volunteers. So cool.
The second day consisted of taking the coral carnations off, fluffing them up, and putting glue on the bottom and passing them to two adults to place on the actual float on the scaffolding. They did the right side of the dragon's neck (so I helped on that technically). Then later, I got to go on the scaffolding myself to put green mums on the float of the UPS float, for the dragon's left side of the neck. At first, I was nervous on the scaffolding when I first stepped onto it. I felt myself shaking a bit when I took a few of my first steps up there. It took me a little bit of time to get use to it, as a girl, Rachel (the lead for the mums) told me it is normal when I told her I need a little time to get use to standing up on scaffolding since it has been a long time since middle school. After I would say forty-five seconds at most, I walked across to my area to put the mums on and Rachel taught me how to do the job. It was so much fun. I didn't like I can hear someone stomping on the scaffolding when I was up there. It happened so frequently, and when I looked around, I didn't see anyone standing and stomping hard. It freaked me out a little at first because even though I knew it's safe, it was just scary to know someone in a sense was jumping on it. I can hear it and want to know who is the person doing it. Nevertheless, I loved being up there and I'm so happy I got to be on there and work with flowers. I didn't get to put carnations on the float. I could have, but I let my friend at it first and be her helper by passing her the flowers because I couldn't figure out how place my foot in the right place to get onto the float with all the in charge people staring at me. No worries. I still got to put flowers on at the end of the day. (:
Then after eating lunch, my sister and I went to Long Beach and got shaved ice at the Fresh Shave. We got the coconut and pineapple choice. It was really good. It was so cold though, but it was worth it. Then we got slices of cake, mango and smores flavor, at Bakers and Barista. We also got arroz caldo for my mom because porridges are the best when anyone is sick. I tried one bite of it, and it was really good. My sister thought the same when she took one bite herself. We need to go back to Bakers and Baristas for dinner. Haha.
December 31: The Greatest Showman+JJ2 Bakery+Bakers & Baristas
This is my last post about 2017. Ahh! Crazy how fast time flies! Can't wait for more posts in 2018! Thank you to all for being patient with my posts the second half of 2017 due to a busy schedule this Fall semester. I powered through to share my journey to you with many posts towards the end of 2017. Haha. Thank you for your patience!
